Grant provides $45 million for HIT training skillsHealthcare IT News Share Approximately $240 million in newly launched federal grants have been made available for job training programs, including those in health IT. The grants,
which were announced May 2 by U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, are being made available through the H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants program competition. Grants will be awarded to help workers update current job skills or acquire new skills so they can enter career pathways that lead to higher-paying jobs, including positions in information technology.More

Biometric device likely part of toolkit for bin Laden raidWired Share The U.S. forces who killed Osama bin Laden were more than expert marksmen. Some of them were forensics experts as well, using sophisticated tools to ensure that they got the right man. Speaking at a
White House briefing, counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said he had "99 percent" certainty the commando team killed bin Laden, thanks to "facial recognition, height and an initial DNA analysis." The device is called a Secure Electronic Enrollment Kit, or SEEK, a handheld biometrics recorder that takes iris scans, fingerprints and facial scans and ports them back to an FBI database in West Virginia in seconds.More

EHRs produce some environmental
benefitsInformationWeek Share Enterprise wide use of e-health records has a neutral to slightly positive impact on the environment,
according to a new report released by Kaiser Permanente. In addition, gasoline consumption by patients was reduced by about 3 million gallons per year through individuals avoiding nonurgent medical office visits and instead using KP HealthConnect's services to securely message requests for prescription refills, ask clinicians questions and conduct other virtual activities. More

Patients show positive response to
EHRsFierceEMR Share Patients felt even more comfortable than physicians when it came to using an EHR system — and also felt that the information contained in the record was
more accurate when they physically saw it being entered electronically, according to a recent survey. Overall, the study found that more than 81 percent of patients and 62 percent of physicians had a positive perception of electronic documentation. About 45 percent of patients interviewed said they had a "very positive" perception of their physician or clinician documenting patient care with a computer or other electronic device.
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Q&A: Health IT professionals in high demandGovernment Health IT Share Meaningful use incentives, HIPAA and ICD-10 conversion are combining to create a high demand for health care IT professionals in the marketplace. Eric Marx, vice president of health care IT services for
IT staffing and recruiting firm Modis talks with Healthcare IT News about what hospitals and other health care organizations are doing to find the right people for the right jobs. More

Overcoming ICD-10 hurdlesHealth Data Management Share According to recent surveys, many organizations are behind schedule in planning for the transition to ICD-10, which is going to smack against any number of clinical, billing and reporting information systems. However, those who have jumped headfirst into planning for the transition do share common lessons. And many are realizing just how expansive the impact of ICD-10
actually is. More

Survey analysis: Making
meaningful use easier should be top priority at ONCHealthcare IT News Share Healthcare IT News asked its readers what they think should be Farzad Mostashari's top priority as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology chief. The majority of respondents believe that making meaningful use easier for providers to achieve should be at the top of Mostashari's list. The 35 percent of participants who would like to see meaningful use as the top priority think that ONC should improve
their programs and methods, such as EHR usability guides, in order to help providers meet meaningful use.More

Jumpstart your revenue cycleView our case study to see how TransUnion Healthcare helped Riverside Health System improve patient pricing transparency and collect 54% more at the point of service.more

Mobile health app users want intelligent, interactive featuresInformationWeek Share More than 90 percent of mobile health apps users said that retrieving information from a health app is the No. 1 reason for using such a tool, according to a study by the Consumer Health Information
Corporation. More specifically, the study showed that 58 percent of respondents said they wanted to use a health app to help manage disease or medications and 48 percent said they want to use the software to keep track of health information. More

Health care labor market improved in first quarter of 2011Healthcare Finance News Share The strength of the national health care labor market showed improvement across a number of major metropolitan areas in the first quarter of 2011, as measured by the HWS Labor Market Pulse Index, a
quarterly barometer of local market health care workforce fluctuations. For the first quarter of 2011, 18 of the 30 markets tracked by the LMPI showed signs of accelerated expansion.More